Missing
by Megg22
Summary: Elizabeth McCord deals with disaster every single day as Secretary of State, but how will she cope when it's her own family at risk?
1. Chapter 1

**Hi Guys! I haven't written in forever but I am in love with my recent discovery of Madam Secretary and felt like starting something new. As always these characters do not belong to me.**

"Why can I never find anything in this house?" Elizabeth complained as she rushed around the house looking for her belongings. "I swear that my keys have legs; I'm sure I – "

"Mom they're here!" Said Jason with a snigger as he pulled his mothers keys out of the fruit bowl on the counter.

"What the –" she couldn't refrain her own smile at them being in such a ridiculous place. "Thank you baby." She added, taking the keys from her son.

"Just take a deep breath alright." Henry placed his hands on his wife's shoulders and gave them a reassuring squeeze. He knew that she was nervous about presenting her ideas to the President this afternoon. "You'll be great."

"I just don't know if we're prepared enough on this one Henry. I mean, the team has worked so hard, but if there's a single budget issue then the whole thing could end up being a waste of time and I don't –"

"You'll be great." He repeated with a smile. Elizabeth had been tossing and turning all night; overthinking as usual, and Henry knew that as soon as she got to work and into "work-mode", she would be absolutely fine.

Elizabeth smiled too and kissed her husband before responding with; "I love you."

"Ugh"

"Please" Stevie and Jason muttered in unison at their parent's display of affection.

Henry and Elizabeth laughed before engaging in an exaggeratedly long kiss simply to get on their children's nerves.

"Right, got to go. Love you, love you, love you" she blew kisses to each of the family members as she headed towards the door. "Ali hurry up you're going to be late – I love you!" She shouted up the stairs.

"Mom, Ali's not here." Stevie commented as she made her own way towards the stairs.

"What? Where is she?"

"She said she had to get into school early, a project or something, I don't know. I thought she would have spoken to you guys about it?"

"No – Henry did Ali say anything to you?" Elizabeth asked her husband who had entered the hallway in order to join the conversation.

"No, but look don't worry, I'll speak to her later. You just concentrate on the presentation OK."

"Fine, I'm going, I'm going – here take this post – I'm gone, love you, bye!"

 **o0o**

"Hey honey, how'd it go?" Henry greeted his wife as she returned home later that evening. From the look of exhaustion on her face he reasoned that she'd had a pretty rough day.

"Ugh, do you mind if we don't even talk about it? All I want is a glass of wine and to snuggle up with you on that sofa!" She leant over the back of the sofa and placed a kiss on Henry's forehead as she spoke.

"Deal, you go and take those heels off and I'll get pouring."

Elizabeth was already pulling off her shoes and massaging her feet. As she leant on the staircase to do so, she noticed the pile of post on the side cabinet.

"Henry, you still haven't opened any of the post from this morning!" She yelled so that he could hear her annoyance from the kitchen. "There could be something important!"

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry – I just found so many better things to do today than open bills and junk mail. I'll do it in a second. You just go and put some cozy pajamas on whilst I make you some pasta and that glass of wine."

Loving how much her husband took care of her, Elizabeth smiled to herself as she made her way upstairs to her bedroom.

"Hey kids, how were your days?" She called out from the landing.

"Fine." Jason called out. He was probably playing his computer games and Elizabeth accepted that his one word answer would be all that she'd get out of him.

Stevie stepped out of her room to greet her mum. "Hey, how did your presentation go?"

"Don't ask." She rolled her eyes and went to knock on Allison's door.

"She's not back yet." Stevie informed.

"What? It's gone nine, where is she?" Elizabeth was annoyed. It was one thing for Allison to forget to tell her parents about going in early but to then stay out extra late was pushing it a bit far.

Stevie shrugged; "I'm not sure, she's probably just with friends or something."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes again, she was too tired to even get angry right now but she would certainly be having words with her youngest daughter.

 **o0o**

"Dinner for one." Henry motioned to the tray of food and drink that he had laid out for his wife by the sofa. She grabbed the still unopened pile of post before going to sit down.

"Thank you." She said, taking a large sip of red wine with a satisfying sigh. "Where's Ali? I know it was probably just an innocent mistake her not telling us about going in early tomorrow but if she's going to be out all hours, we should at least know in advance."

"Just with friends, I think, I'm sure she'll be home soon." Henry sounded relaxed but the look of alert on his wife's face told him that he wouldn't be relaxed for long.

"What do you mean you "think" she's with friends? What friends? Didn't she say anything when you spoke to her?" Elizabeth couldn't believe how little everyone seemed to know about Allison's life recently – including herself, which she felt guilty about.

"I haven't actually spoken to her, I couldn't get through so I texted her but I think her battery might be dead. I didn't want to worry you about this because there is nothing to worry about. She's our sensible one and she deserves to have a little freedom." Henry smiled reassuringly but Elizabeth didn't look convinced.

"She's on that phone 24/7 Henry, the battery would never be dead. I don't like not knowing where our daughter is."

"We can't keep track on her every move Bess."

"We could if I had my way."

"We've spoken about this; we're not going to spy on our kids – we're their parents."

"Fine, but when she gets in I'm not going to hold back on the interrogation OK."

"Fine, now just relax, and eat!" Henry passed her the bowl of pasta.

Elizabeth spooned some pasta into her mouth before picking up a letter from the pile of post. "Even boring bills have to be opened." She commented with light sarcasm. "Although, you're right, this is a pretty boring task, I mean how many –" she stopped speaking as she stared at the words on the page in her hands.

"Bess, what is it?" Henry asked concerned.

"Henry…" She couldn't speak the words, instead she handed the piece of paper to her husband and watched as he read the words:

 **WE HAVE YOUR DAUGHTER**

 **Hope you enjoyed that little opener! Please let me know what you think because I've got a few ideas on how to play this one out. M x**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you all so much for your reviews and comments! I'm not sure that I'll always be able to update this quickly but I wanted to give a bit more seeing as you've all been so kind in showing interest. I hope you enjoy...**

She had been trained to deal with difficult situations calmly and rationally Hostage crises, terrorist attacks, kidnappings; during so many terrible events, she made the decisions that nobody else wanted to make – that was her job. But this wasn't work – this was family.

"Henry they've got Allison. What are we going to do?" Elizabeth needed her husband's reassurance. She wasn't usually one to panic but right now she felt sick – she had failed her daughter and she couldn't bear to think of what the consequences of that might be.

"Bess we have to make a decision quickly, do we inform security and get the White House involved or do we do as they say and keep this to ourselves?"

"What if they already think I've told someone? I went into work Henry; this note has been here since this morning. It says that if we tell anyone, that they'll –" She couldn't say the words out loud. "What if they already have?" The last words were a whisper.

"Mom, Dad, what's going on?" Stevie walked over to her parents. As she came downstairs she perceived the intensity of their conversation and, as she drew closer, she could see looks of worry on both of their faces. "What's happened?"

"Stevie, when was the last time you saw or spoke to Ali?" Henry asked his daughter urgently whilst trying not to sound too panicked.

"Why? What's happened? Is she OK?"

"Just answer the question Stevie!" There was such sternness to her mother's tone that Stevie obeyed and answered her father's question.

"Last night, after we'd all had dinner, when we went up to our rooms that's when she mentioned going in early this morning. That's all she said really, we said goodnight and that's the last time. Now please, tell me what's happening, you're scaring me." Stevie was worried now. Her parents weren't ones to overreact and right now they both looked terrified. Stevie hadn't thought much of Allison staying out but now that she came to think about it, it was unusual for her sister to have been gone for so long.

"Just go to your room for a while Stevie." Elizabeth commanded; she was in action mode and now that she had received the necessary information from Stevie, she needed nothing more.

"No, I'm not a child, I won't be sent away. Something's wrong and I want to know what's happening. She's my sister and –"

"Stevie please," Henry pleaded, the last thing they needed right now was a family domestic, "just wait upstairs and let us deal with some things. We'll come up and speak to you soon."

Reluctantly, Stevie obeyed and went to her room. She didn't like being kept in the dark and she certainly didn't like being treated like a child by her parents. However, her father had sounded almost desperate and she trusted that they would open up to her as soon as they could.

"This was planned Henry, planned to the smallest detail. If Ali already had plans to go into school early then somebody has been watching her to know exactly when she would be out of the house. Security check our post, right, so this letter was planted, disguised as junk mail and sure to get to us by 8am. They've had her since before then." Elizabeth had to be logical about this; it was the only way she could deal with it.

"But we didn't open the letter straight away, we carried on as normal because we didn't know anything was wrong. That's good Bess, it means that they wont suspect we've told anyone. If they've been watching Ali then they are watching all of us – we can't tell anyone. We can't take any risks; these people aren't armatures, they haven't done anything suspicious or else security would have picked up on it."

"Right, OK, you're right but Henry what do we do now? It's so strange, they haven't made any demands and who even sends written threats anymore?"

"It's old school I'll admit, but you and I both know that it's getting easier and easier to track digital footprints, they must have thought it through, and that means that they'll have their next step planned."

"And they wont hurt her," Elizabeth took a deep breath, the last thing she wanted to do was to break down in tears because she feared that if she did, she'd never be able to pull herself together, "they wont hurt her because they need her."

"She's their bargaining chip." Henry confirmed solemnly.

"Mom! Dad!" Stevie rushed down the stairs towards her parents, she was visibly upset and sounded panicked.

"Stevie, darling, what is it?" Henry rushed over to his daughter and took her in his arms but she struggled.

"Dad, wait, I need to show you." Stevie pulled away from her father in order to show him her phone. "It's a video, it's Ali, she –"

"Oh God, Stevie show us." Elizabeth rushed over to them.

All three of them huddled around the tiny screen; Elizabeth took a deep breath as Stevie moved to press play. There she was, her baby, right in front of her on the small screen looking cold and frightened. What Elizabeth would have given to just reach out and hold her little girl…

"I am Alison McCord, I am the daughter of the Secretary of State. I have not been harmed." Alison's voice was shaky as she spoke the words that she was evidently being directed to read although nothing was visible in the shot.

"Elizabeth McCord, you will provide us with the information we need. If you do not –" Alison paused. Elizabeth and Henry felt their stomachs tighten in agonizing pain as they watched tears drop from their terrified daughters eyes. Alison took a deep breath before finishing; "If you do not, then I will die."

With that the video ended, filling the McCord's living room with a dreadful silence.

"What the hell is going on?" Stevie burst out, she was crying heavily now and her father pulled her in to his shoulder so that he could try to comfort her.

Elizabeth paced the room. Her head was spinning – who would do this? She mentally ran through all of the current issues that the State Department had been dealing with, she considered each problem and tried to assess who might be desperate enough to turn to kidnapping.

"I just don't know!" The words came out as half cry and half sigh as Elizabeth allowed her body to plummet to the sofa. Scared, frustrated and tired, she simply couldn't think anymore; she didn't know what to do and she hated feeling helpless.

"Oh Mom." Stevie pulled away from her father and went over to join her mother on the sofa. Elizabeth pulled her daughter in close, wrapped her arms around her and stroked her hair. She couldn't remember the last time she'd cuddled Allison, or the last time she'd told her she loved her. In fact, she wasn't even sure what they'd last spoken about. Days just seemed to rush past in a blur when things were busy at work and now she regretted not cherishing every moment with her family.

"Everything's going to be OK." Henry put a hand on each of their shoulders and prayed that his words sounded as reassuring as he'd intended them to be. He didn't know how everything would turn out, how could he? But he had to stay strong – for all of their sakes.

"Baby, we have to stay strong OK. You, Dad, and me we're the only ones who know about this and it has to stay that way. I don't know who has Allison but I will find out and I will get her home safely." Elizabeth cupped Stevie's face as she spoke. Whilst the two of them didn't always see eye to eye, Stevie trusted her mother more than anyone else in the world.

"What about Jason?" Stevie asked.

"For now, we keep him out of this." Henry hoped that he could protect at least one member of his family from the horror of this situation.

"But what if they send him something too? Or worse…"

"If they send him something then we'll face it together, as a family. But nothing is going to happen – not to either of you OK, your mom and I will keep you safe."

"You mean we won't let them down like we have Allison." Elizabeth had moved from desperation to anger and she spat the words out with all of the vehemence that she was feeling towards herself.

"We're going to get her back Bess." Henry didn't have the luxury of giving in to his fury; he had to remain calm and strong for his family.

"God, I hope you're right." Elizabeth walked out of the room, she needed some space, just a moment alone so that she could think about just how far she might have to go to get her daughter back.

 **Please continue to comment, I love hearing what you all think and am always open to hearing suggestions/improvements/ideas. M :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**A slightly longer update for you all - Enjoy :)**

" _Mom! Mom! Where are you?" Elizabeth could hear her daughter crying out to her. Running frantically, she tried to assess where Alison's voice was coming from so that she could locate her, but the building was a maze and it was just too dark to see clearly._

" _Ali, baby, I'm right here, I'm coming, don't worry." She called out, desperately wanting to comfort her baby but also needing further responses from Alison so that she could follow her voice._

" _Mom! Make them stop, please make them stop!" Alison's audible sobs were like knives to Elizabeth's heart. "Mom! They're going to –" This desperate cry was cut off by the horrendous sound of a gun shot._

"No! Ali! No, baby, oh my God, no!"

"Bess, it's OK, you're just dreaming." Henry practically had to hold his wife down as she thrashed about in their bed, crying out in anguish at whatever terrible imaginings she'd had about their daughter. This was the reason why he had been unwilling to go to sleep himself; he couldn't bear to let his imagination overpower him with even worse images than his conscious mind was already offering.

Bess' body went limp as she woke up from her nightmare. It took her a moment to realize that she had only been dreaming, but it didn't take long for her to remember that her reality was a living nightmare too. With tears still streaming down her face she allowed her husband to pull her close to him and wrap his arms around her.

"Henry, I want our little girl back." She sobbed. Her husband was the only person that she would ever allow herself to be vulnerable in front of. Most of the time, even with him, she would keep a forceful wall up to prevent anyone from seeing her weaknesses. Right now though, she needed to be weak, to share her fears with the only other person who could even begin to understand what she was feeling. They did everything together; they were a team, and right now all that she could do was hope that they were strong enough to get through this.

"I do too babe, I do too."

 **o0o**

"So I said to Mrs. Marsden that if she insisted on teaching history from such a biased perspective then she couldn't expect me to take what she said as historical fact. I mean, it didn't go down well with her, but clearly she's not someone who deals well with the truth – I could tell that much from her lesson on the Cold War."

The noise of Jason rattling on about school was dim in the background of Elizabeth and Henry's minds. They both stood nursing cups of black coffee in the hope that the caffeine might revive them following a night of practically no sleep.

"Are you guys even listening to me?" Jason asked in between bites of a slice of toast.

"What?" Bess was snapped out of her thoughts by Jason's direct question and realizing how unintentionally harshly she'd responded, she quickly added, "Sorry, baby, what were you saying again?"

"I swear I'm invisible in this house!" Jason moaned.

"You're not invisible buddy," Henry ruffled his sons hair as he spoke, "it's just been a long week."

Stevie walked downstairs, into the kitchen looking as though she's had even less sleep than her parents. Her eyes were puffy and red from her constant crying.

"Morning honey," Henry said, placing a kiss on his daughter's cheek.

"Morning." She mumbled, moving to make herself some coffee.

"Shall I go and wake Ali up?" Jason asked as he placed his dirty dishes in the sink.

A loud crash filled the room as Stevie dropped her mug of coffee.

"No worries buddy, Ali stayed at a friends last night." Henry spoke calmly despite it being almost physically painful to say Alison's name.

"What! On a school night? You guys never let me stay out – invisible, I tell you, absolutely invisible."

"Jason, hurry up and get to school, we'll discuss how terribly unfair your life is another time OK. Just get a move on." Elizabeth urged her son on teasingly and watched him as he picked up his belongings. "I love you." She added, kissing him on the cheek.

"Have a good one bud, and try not to start a war with your history teacher!" Henry added as their son left the house.

With the sound of the door closing behind Jason, Elizabeth and Henry looked at each other, both hoping that their act of normality had been convincing enough. They didn't want to worry Jason but that didn't stop them from worrying _about_ him.

"Should Jason even be going to school, I mean, what if something happens to him?" Stevie was knelt on the kitchen floor attempting to clean up the broken pieces of the mug she had dropped. As she spoke, she burst into tears and leant her body on the kitchen cabinet for support.

"Hey, hey, come here." Henry scooped his daughter into his arms.

"Listen Stevie, we have to be strong OK." Elizabeth spoke firmly to her daughter as Henry softly stroked the girl's shoulders. "We have to act like absolutely nothing has happened. I've told security to keep an even closer eye on him but that's as far as I can go. It would look too suspicious to keep him off of school and how would we explain it to him?" It seemed as though Elizabeth was attempting to convince herself that she had made the right decision, just as much as she was trying to convince Stevie.

"Look, I'll clean up this mess, you two go and get ready. Your mom's right Stevie, the best thing we can do for Ali right now is keep it together."

Stevie and Elizabeth both made their way upstairs to finish getting ready. As they reached the top of the staircase Stevie reached for her moms hand in order to gain her attention.

"What is it Stevie?" Elizabeth asked, rubbing her daughter's hand within her own.

"What if something happens to her mom, like, what if they hurt her or, or…"

"Stevie you can't think like that, it'll drive you crazy."

"But I can't stop thinking, it all keeps turning over in my mind."

"You need to be strong, Stevie."

"I'm trying mom, I just think that –"

"Look, baby, I really need to get to work."

"But I need –"

"We'll speak later, Ok." Elizabeth kissed her daughter's forehead and made her way to her own bedroom. It was difficult enough for her to hold herself together and be strong without having Stevie's sadness and fear right there before her. It was too much and, as always, she had to make the sensible decision; right now it was to walk away from her daughter – however much she needed her.

 **o0o**

"Good Morning Madam Secretary."

"Good Morning Nadine, it's nice to see that you aren't waiting to welcome me with news of some impending disaster this morning." Elizabeth smiled at her colleague. She intended to do everything in her power to prevent anyone from questioning whether anything was wrong.

"Morning Madam Secretary." Blake leapt up from his seat in order to walk alongside his boss as she made her way into her office. As they reached the door he managed to inform her; "Russell Jackson's here for you."

"Russell, what an unexpected surprise." Elizabeth remarked sarcastically; since her first day in the job she had learnt to expect to find Russell Jackson waiting for her around every corner she turned.

"When were you planning on telling us Elizabeth?" His voice was as cold and as stern as ever.

Elizabeth suppressed a gasp; how had he found out about Alison? How had _they_ found out – Russell's mention of 'us' could only be referring to himself and the President? She slowly placed her jacket over her desk chair in order to compose her self and take a moment to consider how to respond.

"You can't just go around signing agreements without even consulting the President. You had no right to make that deal with China and you know it."

Elizabeth almost smiled with relief but quickly noticed how agitated Russell was becoming due to her lack of responsiveness.

"My job is to make these decisions Russell, I can't be expected to consult the President each and every time I have to resolve an issue. If we don't react fast to the Chinese and Russian alliance then our trade relations are going to be shattered."

"There's acting fast and there's acting foolishly."

"Oh and is that what the President directed you to come and tell me Russell or was that just a personal sentiment?" Whatever was going on in her personal life at the moment, Elizabeth wasn't prepared to have Russell Jackson belittle her at work.

"This isn't over Elizabeth."

"Goodbye Russell."

As Russell stormed out of the office, Nadine and Blake made their way in.

"So much for no impending disasters this morning." Nadine commented dryly.

"Here's your coffee Madam Secretary." Blake placed the drink on her desk.

"Thank you," Elizabeth smiled at Blake then turned to her Chief of Staff, "Nadine, I need a staff meeting in half an hour. We're going to need to pull together a strong case so that I can prove to the President that I made the right move with China."

"Yes Madam Secretary."

Elizabeth returned to her office following the meeting with her team. She was so grateful to have such committed and intelligent people working for her, especially since she needed to rely on them more than ever to prevent any mishaps at work. She had enough to deal with without world disasters. As she distractedly scrolled through documents on her laptop she received a notification for a personal email. Her work email was used for highly sensitive and disclosed information so she had set up a personal account for her friends and family to contact her on. This message however, was from an unknown sender.

ALL WE WANT IS INFORMATION. PROVIDE US WITH WHAT WE REQUIRE AND YOUR DAUGHTER WILL BE SAFE…

Elizabeth read through the rest of the email in which demands were made for the security details of specific US nuclear weapon sites. These people had good enough intelligence to know as much about America's nuclear weapons as they clearly already did. Yet, they needed more information and they had been desperate enough to kidnap her daughter to get it. Elizabeth tried to process her thoughts logically; this must be the work of a small group. If another country's leaders were planning an attack, then they would have enough manpower to attempt to access the information without raising any alarm bells – and even if they couldn't, they would never kidnap, the risks were just too high.

Suddenly, the phone rang interrupting Elizabeth's thoughts and making her jump slightly. It was her mobile and the caller ID showed that it was Stevie calling.

"Hello Stevie, is everything OK?"

"No, I mean yeah I'm fine, it's just I'm not OK, I keep worrying about Ali and I needed to speak to you." Stevie's voice was hoarse and Elizabeth knew that her daughter had been crying again.

"Oh baby, I know it's hard but you've got to try and take your mind off of it. I promise you I'm doing everything I can for Ali –"

"What do you mean, has something happened? Was there another video?"

"No, no Stevie, look, this is not for you to worry about OK. I just need you to keep it together, please, trust me."

"Mom you can't keep things to yourself, this isn't work where you can't say anything, this is our family!" Stevie couldn't keep the anger out of her voice. The last thing she really wanted to do was fight with her mother but it was so frustrating how closed off she was being.

"Stevie we are not going to have this conversation right now." Elizabeth spoke firmly; she too was trying her best to prevent an argument. "We'll speak later OK."

"That's all you ever say!" Stevie shouted before hanging up the phone.

Elizabeth sighed, she felt as though her whole world was falling apart – but she had to keep herself together. She read through the email once more then stared at her mobile – she knew that she should speak to Henry. But perhaps there was someone more important she needed to speak to. Whoever had Alison were planning to attack American nuclear sites – any such threat had to be reported to the President; that was her job. Her job was also to protect Alison. The magnitude of her decision suddenly hit her now; who should she put first, her daughter, or her country?

 **Thanks so much for reading, please do comment to let me know what you think. M :)**


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